Would you Go with Me?
by Starved of Song
Summary: The Teen Titans are investigating potential Alien disturbances in America's Pacific Northwest when they are attacked by mysterious, invisible foes. They are tragically separated, and in forests as big as these, who knows if they'll find each other again? Even more worrying? The invisible monsters have friends, and they are very difficult to see in the dark... BBXRae, action/adv
1. They came from the Trees

**Well, hello! I guess I'm back with another Teen Titans fic! This story began as a small one-shot that I wanted to write and post quickly for my readers here on , but instead I think I want to make this a full (if not short) fic. It will be BBXRae (of course, as they're my OTP) and I'd love to hear feedback and suggestions on it if you guys should have any!**

 **With two jobs after graduation, a full fiction story I'm mapping out and plans to go to Grad school for my MFA, I can't exactly say that there will be a schedule for updates at this time. I _can_ say, however, that I'm SUPER excited to write it and I know that updates won't be few and far between! I hope you're as excited to be back as I am! ^_^**

 **Titans, Go!**

 **-Song**

* * *

When Robin was in charge of the aux cord, the base was always blasting from the stereos of the T-Car. Raven hid behind a dusty book that clouded up the backseat of the T-car and tried not to think about how badly her eardrums would be affected by this. She couldn't understand how Starfire was asleep against her, and she even voiced this aloud to everyone in the car. Robin smiled back at his girlfriend who looked peaceful.

"She's used to a warring planet full of strong, titanic aliens," he yelled over the noise. "I think any sort of disturbance is like a lullaby to her."

"Dude, that's cool," Beast Boy screamed over the stereo. Raven cringed because it was in her left ear that he did. "I don't think I could hear myself think, let alone sleep in this noise!"

"Can you ever hear yourself think?" Cyborg mumbled from the driver's seat.

"What?!" Beast Boy screamed from the back.

Robin frowned. "Are you guys trying to tell me that the music is too loud?"

"YES!" they all replied in unison. Robin looked affronted but ever so slightly turned down his rock and roll.

" _Sure_ ," Raven shut the book. "Like that's any better."

"I dunno, Rae," Beast Boy grinned at her. "It literally is quieter."

Beast Boy was a lot bigger than he used to be, taller and took up a lot more space. He wasn't a bean pole any longer, and so when Raven turned to give him a biting retort, she realized that their noes were nearly touching.

"I suppose," she turned her face back toward the front, "you're not wrong."

Beast Boy gasped dramatically. "Wait, are you saying… I'm _right_?"

Raven's eyes glowed a little. "No, I would never say something so ridiculous."

Cyborg thrust out his hand and tapped the music off. The drastic shift from noise to silence was almost painful, and Starfire stirred against Raven's shoulder.

"Please." Cyborg's exasperation was potent. "Please, just like, stop. Everyone. My sensors are overloaded and if I don't get some peace and quiet, I'm going to run us into one of these damn big pine trees."

Raven looked out the window at the ever growing forest around them. They had been combing their way through several Washington state national parks for over a week now. They'd been notified by other Titans that a disturbance had been popping up in Washington following the strike of a meteor to the Earth. Starfire had been worried it might be alien life wreaking havoc on the area, so they'd come to check.

Except when they reached the crash site, they'd found nothing but green, glowing rock that Star couldn't identify. Without other resources, Robin suggested they start retracing the steps of every distress call other Titans had received.

Now, on day ten it seemed, Cyborg was getting a little testy over it.

Robin seemed like he was going to protest, but stayed quiet. It was a blissful twenty minutes before they came across a fallen tree in the road. There were no signs or warnings that there had been any damage to the area, so they slowed down and discussed moving it out of the way for oncoming traffic.

"Raven, can you just like, you know," Cyborg waved his hands at it over the steering wheel. "Magic it away from us?"

Raven rolled her eyes and stretched out a hand. "Azarath, Metrion Zinthos," she breathed gently. Beast Boy could practically feel her magic fill the car as the massive tree was lifted into the air and removed from the road.

"Goosebumps," Beast Boy joked. He dramatically rubbed his arms, consequentially jostling her and Starfire next to him. _He really has grown so much_ , Raven thought.

"Gee, thanks," she replied, then elbowed his arm for bumping into her so much. He elbowed her back and then suddenly they were rocking the whole backseat, whacking at each other in order to get a few inches apart.

"Hey! Yo!" Cyborg snapped. "Y'all gonna act like children, I swear I will turn this car arou-"

Suddenly there was an explosion from the forest nearby, launching the freshly removed tree and others into the air and down onto the hood and roof of the T-Car. Starfire woke instantly and looked around, shocked at the huge dent now above them. The back windows shattered and Beast Boy instinctively climbed on top of the girls to shield them from the glass.

"Beast Boy!" Raven was yelling, frustrated and a little claustrophobic.

"What is happening?" Starfire was yelling.

"Aw Hell, not my baby!" Cyborg was yelling.

"Titans! Go!"

They couldn't exactly spring into action, what with the T-Car caving in on top of them, but the driver's side and passenger door were able to be opened, so Robin and Cyborg were out first. Starfire, in a fit of rage and confusion, shot the backseat door open with a starbolt blast from her eyes, and Raven and Beast Boy were left entangled in the back alone.

"Get off of me!"

Beast Boy tried to oblige but he ended up elbowing her in the ribs.

"Oh for the love of," she hissed and phased through the bottom of the car and out from under him.

"If you could do that _the whole time!?_ " Beast Boy roared and struggled in vain to get out of his seat belt. He couldn't bear to break the T-Car into bits by changing into something huge, so instead he did the logical thing and became a hummingbird.

"Look out!" Starfire screamed suddenly, and Raven re-appeared out of the concrete just in time to see another massive tree come careening toward them. Toward Cyborg who, of all of them, happened to be the slowest Titan.

Immediately she stuck out a hand and attempted to slow its fall, but was crashed into by a rush of wind which knocked her off her feet, her hood over her face. Raven briefly heard Robin exclaim, and then a horrible cracking sound echoed through the forest.

 _No!_ She thought and ripped her hood off. Cyborg still stood, looking shocked, in between the massive halves of the just split sides of the tree around him. He smiled sheepishly over at someone, and Raven heard him say, "Thanks Bb."

"No sweat," Beast Boy grinned.

Starfire soared into the air full of joy. "Glorious! What a fantastic pointed lizard you make."

Beast Boy had somehow appeared in front of Raven, who was still on the ground - possibly in shock - and offered her a hand up.

"Stegosaurus, actually."

Raven wanted to roll her eyes, but instead shot a relieved glance at Cyborg and then nodded. "Good work, Beast Boy."

"I know," he grinned. It was then that she rolled her eyes.

"What was all that about," Robin thought aloud. He moved over to a felled tree and scuffed it with his boot. It was massive, not moving. Unbelievable that anything could have uprooted it and thrown it as far as they had.

"Starfire, what do you think?"

Starfire shook her head. "The crash site that we observed held no clues as to what or who might have landed here. It could be," she thought, "that nothing may have landed here. That simply a meteor may have made contact with Earth."

"And then what?" Cyborg asked, still a little shaky from his near being crushed by the massive pine tree. "If nothing came out of that hunk of rock, what is throwing stuff at us? It's been ten days and not only have we learned nothing? We were almost killed."

Robin could feel the palpable shift in Cyborg's demeanor so he called a time out.

"Okay, I know we've been at this a while so why don't we just take a minute and regroup-"

Cyborg threw his hands up and gestured at the ruins of the T-Car. He couldn't even form words at this point and Beast Boy cleared his throat to relieve the awkward tension.

Raven sighed, walked over to Cyborg and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know what you're feeling," she told him gently. "Of all people I know what the T-Car means to you, but it's time to put that aside for now and get out of here. Clearly," she looked around. "It's a bit dangerous."

His nostrils flared but he couldn't snap at Raven, so instead he breathed out a huge sigh and nodded.

"Alright," Robin crossed his arms. "Come on."

"Come on… where?" asked Beast Boy.

Robin pointed to the trees where the projectiles were coming from. "There."

* * *

Starfire and Raven flew ahead of the men in order to get a good idea of what they'd be dealing with. They kept their communicators close just in case. As they reached what appeared to be a clearing, they realized it was actually a circle of felled trees. The ground was mauled and the roots were ripped entirely from the earth, leaving black and brown piles of dirt everywhere.

"That's odd," Raven murmured to herself.

Starfire suddenly burst forward ahead, seeming to zone in on something that Raven hadn't seen. Just as she adjusted direction she was blasted out of the sky by an invisible force. As Raven plummeted to the forest floor she saw Starfire disappear into the clouds.

Unable to stop her own fall, Raven attempted a quick force field that would hopefully absorb the impact. Just as she was about to make one, she felt something sharp and thin whip against her left shoulder. She ricocheted off of it, which turned out to be a tree branch, and careened into the trunk of an aged pine.

After that it was nothing but darkness.

* * *

Beast Boy did his best to comfort his friend about the broken T-Car.

"Look, it's okay - this just gives us an awesome excuse to go to the hardware store and the auto shop! You know you love shopping for cylinders and… like, wrenches and stuff."

"Do you even know what you're saying?" While Cyborg appreciated the effort Beast Boy was going for, his buzz was too killed to really get into the shenanigans.

"No, but this will also give you an excuse to teach me more about cars!"

"Goody."

Robin walked ahead of them and kept his eyes on - well - almost everything. He scanned the skies for Starfire, watched the trees for enemies and even the ground for any clues or artifacts he might be able to find in order to solve this strange mystery.

"Okay," Robin said aloud in a tone that Beast Boy and Cyborg knew too well. He was about to bounce ideas off of them whether they liked it or not. "Here are the facts: a meteor crashes to Earth without discernible origin or motive. Strange things start occurring within twenty four hours of impact."

"People started disappearing," Cyborg offered.

"So do animals," Beast Boy chimed in.

"Right," Robin nods, but keeps walking. "Then there are reports of power outages and areas of forests completely cleared of trees - trees that were hundreds of years old and never before touched."

"Nothing was scheduled for deforestation," Cyborg offers again, finding comfort in the mental distraction.

"Which only makes it stranger," Robin scratched his head. "Not to mention that Starfire has no clue where the meteor could have come from, and there's the mysterious force that started throwing massive trees at us for no reason at all-"

"So definitely aliens, is what we're saying?" Beast Boy asked.

"I don't want to say anything yet," Robin replied. "It just doesn't make any sense. If, in fact, Starfire is right and this meteor is a completely harmless cosmic event, and not motivated by some alien life force, then why are people going missing? Why the power outages? It's been, what? Ten days since we've been here and twenty days since the meteor struck so why hasn't any alien or creature been spotted or reported?"

Cyborg looked around and felt a chill go down his spine. "I mean," he paused.

"What?" Beast Boy asked, and he and Robin both turned to look at him.

Cyborg gestured to the area around them. "I mean, we're in the Pacific Northwest… the forests and parks here are huge, man. Lots of crazy stuff happens here that hardly no one ever sees. When people claim to see stuff, people like... call them nuts because they're the only ones. You know, haunted places, bigfoot, aliens."

"So you're saying that there definitely could be alien life out here," Robin continued. "But the forests are so big we keep missing them? It's a good theory but we've been here over a week. Neither your scanners nor Raven's powers have sensed anything."

"My nose hasn't picked up anything funky, either," Beast Boy offered.

"How would it be possible that we keep missing them unless they were invisible or something?"

Cyborg shrugged.

"That could explain," Beast Boy interjected. "Why we couldn't see a single enemy hurl massive trees at us just now. They would have to have been _right there_."

All three men took in their surroundings and felt very much watched.

"Let's catch up with the girls," Robin suggested, and the three of them started lightly jogging further into the darkening forest.

* * *

 **Hey guys! So that's Chapter one of a whole new story idea I'm working on and let me assure you, its as much a mystery to me as it is to you right now. Let me know what you think and please feel free to comment! I love reading your reviews and I'll definitely write back if I can!**

 **-Song**


	2. Missing or Gone

Starfire was a fast flyer.

She was sometimes so fast that she surprised herself, causing Robin to once mention that Starfire was like a fighter jet. At the time, Starfire mistook the comparison for an aggressive animal and was slightly offended before Robin explained what a jet was. She wasn't sure that being compared to a metal, winged vehicle was appealing either.

Still, she'd seen something, and without thinking had left everyone behind in the dust. Raven, she thought, would be fine on her own. So Starfire had taken off after the thing, and before she knew it, she had lost Raven in her line of vision.

Instead, Starfire saw beneath her a very strange sight. It was a giant forest clearing, the size of the base of a skyscraper, a city block. The clearing was torn apart; small, insistent markings indicated that creatures with claws were to blame for it. Starfire honed in on a running figure and dove low in order to attempt to catch it off guard. Instead, Starfire noticed that it was doing something, so she stopped to watch. It was a tall, lanky figure that seemed wholly disfigured. She gasped in horror as it turned to face her.

Just as she was about to grab her communicator, she was snatched from the air by the ankle and pulled down to hit the ground.

"Cease and desist, horrible monster!" Starfire screamed to no avail as a long, ugly creature with horrible, oozing skin reached down to grasp her mouth, shutting her up.

It had a snout like an elephant and the hump of a camel. Its eyes were deep sockets that were almost aquatic in their blank, empty stares. It clicked and cackled in a language foreign to her, and Starfire was not about to kiss the thing before her to find out what it had said.

Clearly, it was an alien, but none Starfire had ever seen before.

What was it doing here? Were they responsible for the meteor crash?

Just as she was about to launch her counter-attack, a horrifying hissing came from all around her.

Small goblin creatures with claws like razors and eyes huge and bug-like surrounded her and the alien. They had no nostrils, but their forked tongues could taste the Tamaranean before them, and, like hungry beasts, they licked their terrible teeth in anticipation.

She was outnumbered, and so she screamed.

* * *

Beast Boy heard, rather than saw, Raven get knocked out of the sky.

It was like a sickening _thwap!_ At first, he had thought it was Cyborg knocking back a large tree branch, but then he heard more sounds. It was like something was falling through the forest canopy and was hurtling right toward the earth. He turned fast on the balls of his feet and raced off toward the direction it was coming from as a cheetah. His catlike paws made no sound as he weaved quickly around tree trunks and ducked under large boughs of evergreen before he heard the final _whump,_ and then, even worse, the sound of someone getting the wind knocked out of them.

Beast Boy morphed immediately back into his humanoid form and raced to Raven's side. He could tell it was her, she was the only blue thing in the whole forest, and her cloak was wrapped all around her. It was caught under her arms and in between her legs as if she were struggling to get out of it, but she wasn't moving.

"Whoa! Hey, Raven are you-"

From back the way he came echoed the undeniable screams of Starfire. His heart leapt into his throat and he was about to spring into action again when Raven's nose began to bleed.

"Holy crap, Raven!" Beast Boy had heard of concussions before and was now very worried about the woman on the forest floor beneath him.

He went to grab her, but then thought better of moving her. What if he broke something and should have instead let her heal herself?"

The other two Titan men were nowhere to be seen, probably following up on Starfire's screams. Everything in Beast Boy's instincts was warring with him, desperate to go off and help the others, but rooted to the spot in order to care for Raven.

Then, miraculously, her eyes opened, and she blinked a few times.

"Oh, it's you," she whispered painfully.

"Not happy to see me? Hoping for someone else?"

She slowly sat up and rubbed her head. Noticing the blood on her chest, she wiped at her nose and frowned. "No," was all she said, but it made him feel warm inside.

"Where are we?"

"Somewhere in the forest," he said and stood to help her up. "You gonna be okay?"

She nodded. "I thought I heard a scream?"

"Starfire!" Beast Boy suddenly remembered. He gently grabbed Raven's hand but, after all the worry over whether or not Raven had a concussion or not, he'd forgotten where the screaming had come from. Without knowing, he pulled her off to the west, rather than north, accidentally taking them further from their team than they would have ever gone.

* * *

Cyborg knew that something was wrong as soon as Robin and he passed into an empty clearing. His scanners, his monitors, even his solar panels stopped working. He had a good store of battery life, but his heart pounded in his metal chest in worry and fear.

"Starfire!" Robin was yelling, gazing around the empty clearing like a man who'd just lost something.

They were standing in an open field with trees and dirt ripped from the ground. There were mounds and piles of rocks in all directions as if some giant toddler were trying to make something out of them and then kept giving up. There were gash marks and claw marks in the ground, but no sign of anything sinister. No sign of aliens or animals.

No sign of Starfire.

"You heard that, right? You heard her scream?"

"Of course, man," Cyborg replied. He paced alongside Robin, who's hair was standing on end.

"Where is she, then? It was coming from right here - wait, where is Beast Boy?"

Now the two of them were looking in all directions.

"He was… he was right here," Cyborg frowned.

Robin felt goosebumps along his skin. He flattened them down with a gloved hand and took a deep breath. "Okay," was all he said.

Cyborg waited.

"Okay, so something is clearly wrong with these forests."

"I'm tellin' ya, they're haunted."

"No," Robin shook his head. "I mean that maybe that meteor did something to the… the reality or the air around here? Maybe we're hallucinating?"

"I'm not sure that I know what you're getting at," Cyborg frowned, his fingers flexing in an effort to be doing something. "Look, Robin-"

"What I mean is that at one point we were together and now we're not. We can't see Starfire even though we _heard_ her screaming."

"Right, but-"

"And now Beast Boy is missing, too. Not to mention, where is Raven?"

"Robin, my sensors aren't working here."

"What?"

Cyborg held out an arm and showed Robin how his scanner was completely blank.

Robin immediately got a good look at his friend and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I've got battery for now, but..."

"You'll have to go back."

"And leave you here all alone? No way, man!"

"Cyborg-"

"No, you're right; something _is_ wrong with this forest. That's why I'm staying."

"What if it's like this the whole time? What if your battery goes out?"

The two men looked at one another in exasperation and then let out long sighs. Robin could tell that Cyborg was adamant about the situation.

"Fine, let's look around here first and then see if we can come up with a plan."

* * *

Starfire can see them, but she cannot yell out. She is paralyzed, like the aliens, like their pets. They all are frozen in time as Cyborg and Robin navigate the clearing. They do not see her. They do not sense her. All she can do is wonder why her fingers will not move.

She doesn't know these aliens. She does not understand how they are freezing time, how they are invisible. It must be how they were able to avoid them for a week. Starfire is getting more and more frustrated as Robin walks near her.

The alien with his hand over her face moves slightly - his soulless eyes dart back and forth between her two friends, and he makes the lowest clicking noise. Several of the goblin-like pet monsters' antenna twitch.

 _They are communicating_ , she thinks. Starfire can only imagine what they are saying, even worse, that they may be plotting something terrible for her friends.

After they'd circled the entire clearing, she saw them come back together and declare that they'd be moving on. That there was nothing there.

But there was.

Starfire's heartbeat quickly in her chest, her breaths coming gently as her body thawed out of the time freeze. When the two boys left, the creature above her shot its long, horrible arm out, struck her in the head, and she passed out.


	3. Walking Together

**I can't believe how many views and reads this has gotten, thank you so much you guys! I know that Tumblr is having a lot of issues right now and that people are on edge, but I'll still most likely be posting this to my Tumblr page, which is Starvedofsong . tumblr . com**

 **You can also find other written works there and a lot of photos of coffee ^_^**

 **Please review and comment and let me know what you like or don't like about the story, and feel free to make guesses!**

 **Also, thanks to Sanzojoe who reviewed! - I'm not sure what kind of upgrades Cyborg would have, honestly. I didn't want to assume anything. But there is also a good reason why his tech would be disrupted ;) more to come!**

 **-Song**

* * *

Raven hovered an inch or so above the evergreen ferns on the forest floor. Her eyes watched the horizon line between thick trees for any sign of trouble. Behind her, the soft and careful footfalls of Beast Boy trailed along. Unlike her, he seemed almost cheerful. As if it were a leisurely stroll they were taking through a happy grove, rather than hiding from invisible foes in a dark forest.

At the moment he was staring up into space, probably looking for birds or other animals. Raven half smiled to herself before saying, "You've been quiet."

Beast Boy's pointed ears twitched around to hear her small voice echoing back at him.

"Oh yeah, sorry. I'm kind of in my element, you know?'

Raven turned from him and she smiled a little wider. "Mhm."

They kept going, gliding and stepping quickly through the mossy woods. The Pacific Northwest was damp and warm this time of year. The sun only half-streamed through the trees as the day grew into dusk. Raven tried to channel the air around her, but the only person she sensed was Beast Boy. No Robin, no Cyborg. Not even Starfire's bubbly warmth to run through her like a hot bath.

"I can't smell anyone," he called, now lagging behind her. She finally turned because his voice sounded so far away. He was looking behind them now at the sight of a bird flying away.

"Can we focus please?"

When Beast Boy turned back around his face was shining with embarrassment. "Hey, come on…"

Raven gave him a disappointed look and then hovered forward again. He shifted into a white-tailed buck and trotted along with her. They kept pace like that for a while, moving in tandem - the picture of camaraderie in a darkening forest. Then, in a burst of mischief, Raven picked up speed. So did he. The buck moved quickly over ferns and between massive tree trunks. Suddenly he was ahead of her and they were racing. Raven soared over the animal's perfect antlers and tugged playfully on one. He snorted and pawed and sprinted beneath her. They were several hundred feet further than when they'd started when Raven remembered why they were there and she slowed, nearly to a stop. The buck skidded, leaving long trails of hoof marks along the dirt path, and turned its antlered head to watch Raven lower her altitude and rest soundlessly upon the forest floor.

Beast Boy morphed instantly back to his human form. "What?"

Raven looked sheepish, but firm. "We should we working to find the others… not messing around. We could be followed right now by whatever had just tried to kill us. Starfire could be hurt."

A heavy, awkward silence fell between them. Beast Boy broke it the only way he knew how.

"I'm usually within ten feet of you, so whatever happens to you happens to me, too," he smiled. Raven didn't want to approve of his attempt at humor, but she couldn't help it. Between the mysterious threat, the potentially alien life and her missing friends, she had to let herself cross her arms and pretend to look serious.

"Hm," she joked back. "What are you trying to say?"

"That I've got your back, girl." Beast Boy kept walking, a catwalk spring in his step, and Raven was forced to follow. This time on foot.

"Look, I get that you're trying to make me feel better, spare my feelings - whatever, but..."

Beast Boy stopped again and let her catch up. Then he turned to her and placed his hands on each of her shoulders.

"I know, I'm worried, too," he began. "But having a little fun isn't the worst thing in the world sometimes. You should never be afraid to take a breath and relax."

"This isn't the time."

"No," he smiled and gently flicked her on the forehead. She looked aghast and he laughed. "No, but there's never really a _good_ time."

He walked off and they kept going, Raven still a few feet behind him.

Raven thought about what he said as they walked. Slightly offended that he still only thought of her as a stick in the mud, she considered how her outward expressions or words may mislead her friends about how she was feeling. She'd been shutting off herself fo so long that it was hard to change the way that she did things. Raven definitely had done her best, but now it seemed, that Beast Boy still didn't see her any differently.

Something about that made her heart hurt a little in her chest.

"Look," she began, trying to keep her voice light and gentle.

Beast Boy, did not turn, but held up a hand to _shush_ her.

The forest was even darker here, buried under the boughs of tall pines and oaks. The last remaining bits of sunlight could not even hope to penetrate the thick canopy of the forest. The moon was rising somewhere behind the black trees that obscured their view. Still, Raven could only just see the muscles in Beast Boy's neck and back tighten. His shoulders were so broad now; he was much taller than her. Maybe he did have her back, after all.

Raven closed her eyes and attempted to sense any human emotions or creatures that could potentially be surrounding them. There was nothing, then very quickly, something.

Beast Boy's growl came low in his throat. It gently vibrated the energies around them and Raven felt the hairs on the back of her neck tickle. She pulled her hood up over her head and brushed the hairs down.

Beast Boy breathed only, "Raven, I think we-" before they struck.

They were goblin-like and warped, short and shiny-looking. Their skin was either a sickly green or purple, antenna oozing something foul-smelling. They were sharp, too. Their teeth glinted in the growing moonlight, claws extended from small, grubby fingers. Talons reached out to strike and rip at their clothing, their skin. Raven wrapped her hands in black energy shields, knocking them back and protecting herself. She sidestepped a few while others climbed the trees behind her to get above her. Meanwhile, Beast Boy's ankylosaurus form was impenetrable, and it knocked down a few smaller trees in his transformation. The noise of huge footsteps and ripping earth were deafening to Raven. A pack of goblin-things threw themselves from the trees instead onto Beast Boy's back, clawing and screaming and trying to harm him. Raven blasted them off with magic. Beast Boy turned, there was a misstep and the massive dinosaur's tail came careening toward Raven's face. In the nick of time he shifted back, but not before Raven ducked in reflex.

"Raven!" Beast Boy cried. She turned just in time to see a small, frothing creature flying at her face. She was too slow.

"Ah!" she cried and put a hand to her face. The creature latched itself onto her hood and howled like a little banshee.

Beast Boy grabbed it by the scruff, ripped it from her and hurled it at a tree. It's body made contact with the bark with a sickening _crack_. "Go!" he roared at the hoard. "Get AWAY!"

Beast Boy's tiger form was so fast and ferocious that it killed three of them before the massive hoard backed off and disappeared into the already darkening forest, seemingly to regroup, but possibly to head back where they came from.

Beast Boy turned on his heel and ran back to Raven. Her face was scratched. It left a long, angry looking wound that Beast Boy could tell was putting her in a lot of pain. Raven, trying desperately to heal the wound with her magic, trembled from either agony or shock, Beast Boy did not know.

"I know this is a stupid question," he reached for her arm. "But are you okay?"

She pulled her arm out of his reach, stepping back. Raven sighed and lowered her hand, her magic dimming. She gave him an unidentifiable look and pulled her hood up to cover the wound.

"Yes, I'm fine."

Beast Boy only nodded his head gently, assuming that she was still in pain but going to be fine.

"I'm sorry," he told her. She frowned.

"Why?'

"We're stuck in these woods because of me," he replied.

She didn't understand. "No, we're not stuck in these woods, we're searching these woods for the others."

"Who we haven't found yet."

"Well," she smiled a little at him. "It's a big forest."

They looked around at the carnage of the trees and the dead goblin-like aliens.

"I guess," he shrugged. "Sorry you're stuck with me?"

Raven raised an eyebrow at him from under the hood. He could only slightly make out the gesture but it made him smile. Even though it was a childish question, he liked to hear her answers.

"I don't mind," she finally replied. "You are my friend. I'm here. I will go with you."

"We'll go together."

"Yes, we will, but let's keep going and maybe take scans of these things for Starfire and the boys to look at later."

She knelt down and transmitted a full scan of the dead aliens through the Titans' communicator. She hoped that Cyborg, wherever he was, was picking up on the signal.

They headed off in the same direction as before, not knowing they were still getting further and further away from their friends who were now heading north, not west.

Starfire, it seemed, was not moving anywhere at all...


	4. A Soft Realization

Starfire awoke upon a floating glass bed. It was like an operating table but was positioned in what looked like the living quarters of an alien bedroom. There were neon green-glowing plants hanging from their own vines that grasped the ceiling, as well as what seemed to be a door and the equivalent of a chair. They were all shades of white, black and green. There were no windows, and it was impossible for her to see out of the small room, save for the door, which gave off a small amount of light.

Starfire stood up from the glass table and strode immediately to the door, fearing the worst.

"Ow," she whispered, cradling her head where the alien had hit her. Across the room, the steel door held fast to her alien strength. She kicked it, pulled, pushed and tried to slide it this way and that, but nothing worked. There was a very, very small slit in the door that appeared to be an open window, something she could fit her fingers into and reach out into the hallway with just the tips of them. She wiggled them for a second and then attempted to pull the door with her hand in the small window. It did not budge.

From all the evidence around her, Starfire decided that she may be on an alien ship - one with materials that her Tamaranean strength could not destroy.

"Ugh," she mumbled to herself and pulled her hands away. They felt cold and slimy as if the walls were slightly coated in something foreign to her and to Earth. A mucus-like film that made her skin crawl.

Now she leaned forward and put her eyes to the small, rectangular-shaped slot in the door and peered out, hoping to catch a glimpse of the halls or of another living thing.

The hallway was long, black, green and white like the room she was in. There were no windows and the flooring was like a sharp tile or stone. Everything felt hard and cold, like being inside a brightly lit cave with alien smells and sounds echoing all around her.

Something was moving down the hall now, she could hear its creaky, slimy sounds. She turned her eyes to the left and saw, again, the same sort of being that had attacked her in the forest. It was tall and had an elephant-like snout, with blackened eyes and a camel-like hump. It was a horrible, humanoid morphing of many things, but most of all, its feet came away from the stone floor with a horrible sloshing noise, as though it, too, were covered in mucus. It did not seem to notice that she had awakened. In fact, it didn't seem to notice her at all. It passed by without detecting her, and in fact, Starfire wondered even if it could see her.

Was it blind?

She didn't make a sound, but she stuck her hand back out and wiggled her fingers.

The thing didn't turn around, nor did it seem inclined to check on her. She was grateful for that. If the aliens were blind, it would only make it easier for her to dodge them once she took flight and got out of here.

But how would she get out of the small room she was trapped in?

Starfire retreated from the door and went back to sit on the glass bed. She curled her legs beneath her and retrieved the communicator from her waist - but quickly she realized the screen was dead and cracked. It was useless, and most likely they would have taken it from her if it had gotten a signal.

She leaned back against the wall where the bed floated nearest to and closed her eyes, listening for things that might give her a clue about where she was. She wasn't even sure she was on Earth anymore. For all she knew she was in deep space, light years away from her friends who were still wandering the national forest looking for her.

She desperately hoped that that was not the case.

The neon green lights reflecting off the plants made her feel queasy. She stood up and took a closer look at them, and her nose itched with their pungent, sick-sweet smell.

Starfire scrunched up her nose a little bit and then reached for a plant. Their leaves were like aloe, thick and filled with moisture. She kneaded one with her fingers and they came away slimy. She shivered again, but raised the slime to her lips and then tasted it.

Immediately, as though struck by a sharp radioactive wave of energy, she felt her mind go blank and she collapsed upon the floor of the room, unable to move, unable to breathe.

It lasted only seconds, and once she regained herself she lay there, feeling both terrified and relieved.

Terrified because she could have died with a bigger taste.

Relieved because she knew what kind of plant that was, and perhaps whose ship she was on.

Or, at the very least, which planet it had come from.

At least that was something.

At least they might stand a chance.

* * *

"I didn't want to say it," Beast Boy began.

"Just say it, I know you've been thinking about it for an hour."

"...I think we're going the wrong way."

"I think so, too."

The two of them stopped walking on the path. It was like a crushing defeat in their heavy chests because the sun had completely gone, the air had grown cold, and they were definitely going the wrong way.

"We're going west," Beast Boy reminded her. "And that means that the T-Car is wayyyy back there, southeast. Which means we've walked for hours and have probably left everyone behind waiting for us."

Raven only nodded, her face pulsing with ache, her mind drowning in the dread of knowing she'd abandoned their other three friends to fend for themselves while they unintentionally left them all behind.

Beast Boy sighed, his hands on his hips, thinking.

"We should turn back," Raven said at once.

"It'll take hours to walk back in the dark. Can you just like… warp us back to the T-Car?"

Raven suspected she could try, but she felt dizzy and weak from the wound. She hadn't had water in hours and only just now was her stomach grumbling at her. If she warped them now, they may not end up where they wanted to be. At least Beast Boy had an idea of where they were right now, but if she sent them somewhere else, they'd actually be lost, for sure.

"I… don't advise it."

He frowned.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Don't say that," he said walking over to her and giving her a stern look, "if you don't mean it."

"I'm…" she hesitated. "Dizzy."

He looked alarmed instantly.

"Stop," she snapped. "You freaking out will make me freak out."

"Let me look at-"

"No."

He clenched and unclenched his hands, frustrated.

"Have you tried healing it again?"

She hadn't. She knew it wasn't going to help…

"I will, but I need to sit."

Beast Boy held up a hand, asking her to wait, and then jogged away from her for a few steps. He then quickly became an African Elephant. He raised his trunk to the air and seemed to taste the atmosphere around them. Then he became humanoid once more and jogged back to her.

"What was-?"

"Elephants can smell water from miles away, so I checked. There's a lake over there," he pointed northward. "Let's rest at the lake, okay? The water smells fine, and I think you need it."

Raven was impressed.

"Okay."

"Okay," he repeated back at her. He clearly was worried but was trying not to freak her out like she'd asked - even though she could sense his mood from miles away, like an elephant to water.

Then Beast Boy held out a hand to her and she reluctantly took it, allowing him to lead her through the darkness as the moon rose above. The lake was over one hundred yards north through thick trees, but when they emerged, the glittering surface made her feel a little better - as though the forest weren't an endless chasm of darkness and pine needles.

"Come here," he said gently pulling her along.

Raven rolled her eyes as he sat them both upon the cold sand. He dipped a hand in and tasted it first, decided it was alright, and then waved a hand at the lake. A gesture for her to drink.

"You're acting like a boy scout leader."

"At least you won't die from contaminated water," he told her.

He had a point.

"I'm not going to die… yet," she joked. He didn't find it funny.

He narrowed his eyes at her and didn't wait any longer to drink from the lake, choosing to lead by example and forcing her to remember how thirsty she was. After a moment she followed suit. Her stomach still grumbled, and his ear twitched a little when it did, but she ignored it and so did he.

"Okay," he said after a few minutes of rest. "Let's get under the treeline and off this cold sand. Then you can, you know… do your thing."

She let out a small laugh.

"Fine."

They nested under some softer pine boughs and let the sap gently patter down around them. Raven once more held a hand to her cloaked face, still hiding it from him if only to make him feel better, and after little effort realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere with her wound.

Cyborg would have to scan it, and they would have to figure something else out.

What was worse, she could tell that it was oozing, and it felt hot to the touch. She still refused to take her hood down, but Beast Boy couldn't bring himself to ask again.

In fact, he wasn't sure he could take seeing it. Like it would physically hurt him to see.

"What?" she asked.

Beast Boy realized he was staring.

"Sorry, I just…"

"I'm… fine," Raven said, but even she was tired of hearing it. "It's okay."

"I know it is."

They sat there under the soft boughs of the pine tree in quiet until Raven tilted her head back to lean it against the trunk.

"Hey, don't fall asleep," he reminded her. "In case your condition is serious."

"I'm dizzy, Beast Boy", she scolded. "I just need a minute to rest my eyes."

He didn't like the sound of that. Robin would know what to do, and would probably tell her there wasn't time for that, but the soft curve of her mouth showing from under the hood looked so at peace, he dared not challenge her on it.

"Mkay," he said warily. "But only for a bit, okay?"

"Mhm," she mumbled back.

He, too, rested his head against the trunk of the tree. Sap was in his hair, but he didn't mind. What he minded more was that he was afraid. Afraid that if Raven were seriously hurt, or if her wound got infected, that he would be in charge.

In charge of Raven?

Unfathomable.

Beast Boy hoped it wouldn't come to that, and instead flicked on the communicator just to check its status.

Dead. Of course.

The lake shone in the moonlight and glittered with a beautiful fog over the surface as the air cooled over the warm night. The flutter of bats tickled his senses and he felt himself being lulled into the sensations of fireflies and moonlight.


	5. Stay With Me

**Thank you everyone who is sticking with me on this! I got a Guest review today that inspired me for this chapter and so I figured I owed it to you, the readers, to keep going!**

 **I wish I could thank you for your review, Guest, but thank you anyway!**

 **Chapter 5 Everyone!**

* * *

In the northernmost part of the forest, Robin and Cyborg were completely alone. Daybreak was pressing in on them from all sides, and it seemed that they were not going to find their friends before the sun fully rose in the sky.

They'd been walking all night.

"Man, this is insane." Cyborg frowned into his dimly lit arm scanner. When before it had gone completely blank, it now was all buzzing and static. It was giving him a migraine. "I have no idea where we are, my coordinates are busted."

"You're sure you can make it if we keep moving?"

"I'm not leaving you," Cyborg repeated.

Robin decided to stop pressing the point further.

"Very well. Then I need some sort of status report," he joked.

"Right, well, we're in the middle of nowhere, we've been walking for hours, and your girlfriend is missing."

"As well as Beast Boy and Raven," Robin nodded, seriously. "I don't know how we lost them, but I think we can only assume they too have been taken by… whatever it is."

"Aliens or ghosts," Cyborg said.

"Not haunted," Robin argued again.

"Right. Aliens, then."

"Honestly?" Robin sighed. "I think you're right about that one."

Cyborg sighed deeply.

"Why us?"

"Because," Robin groaned. "We're the Teen Titans."

They continued their trek northward as the morning sun began to raise itself higher in the sky. The summer heat of the great National Forest was getting to both of them, not to mention zero sleep, but they pressed onward.

It was why they weren't prepared when they came upon the alien ship.

Cyborg saw it first, finally glancing away from his arm scanner. He ended up switching it off because of the migraine, assured that no one would be able to contact him anyway. When he looked up he saw the glint of something metallic and black in the distance.

"Robin," Cyborg said slowly, coming to a stop. "Look."

The two Titans glared through the treeline to see what appeared to be the sharpened horn of some giant creature. But that wasn't the case.

Instead what they saw upon further inspection, and carefully advancing upon their target, was that it was the bright glinting of sunlight off of some sort of vehicle. The metal was sharp and bright, like a mirror. The black color swirled with sickly green and white shards of crystalline matter patterned the ship.

The entire spacecraft looked like a giant space crab with no eyes or mouth. It was half-circular with huge curved pincer-looking protrusions at the front. There was no discernable entrance or door that they could see, but there was movement outside the craft around its base.

Many skittering goblin-like monsters clicked and snapped some strange language to one another. Their horrible little forked tongues would snake out of their mouths as they tasted the air quickly, and then returned to their strange conversations.

Towering above the two-foot-tall goblins was a horrific, camel-looking alien with an elephant trunk and endless, black eyes. Robin grimaced when he saw it, and he reached for his utility belt.

"We need to find an entrance to the craft," Robin breathed quietly. "I guarantee Starfire is in there."

"I wish I could scan it but…"

"I know," Robin sighed, "but we'll have to figure something out quick."

As they sized up their opponent, neither Robin nor Cyborg could hear the sounds of approaching danger behind them.

Just as Robin was ready to call a forward advance upon the craft, something snapped above their heads.

Both Titans looked and came face-to-face with nearly eight goblin creatures; all of them stared down at the two men with hungry, open mouths as they snapped and ticked their terrible songs to one another.

"Titans, go?" Cyborg offered.

Robin growled low in his throat.

"Yeah, Titans go."

* * *

Beast Boy awoke with Raven tucked under his arm and laying against his chest. He blinked a few times, confused. Was he dreaming?

No, her weight was so warm, her heartbeat gently drumming against his left rib.

Something tingled down his spine at the touch and he couldn't help but adjust so that he was pulling her closer.

The surface of the lake was alight with the beginnings of the morning sun. More steam shone on the water's surface as the day began to heat up, just as the night had rapidly cooled.

Sometime during their sleep, he must have reached for Raven, or she him, but Beast Boy wasn't complaining.

In fact, he was downright delighted.

Beast Boy opened his mouth to gently call to Raven and wake her up, but he stopped. She was barely stirring, even as he adjusted her form against his.

Now was his chance.

Without jostling her, Beast Boy used his right hand to pull back on Raven's cloak. He knew he didn't want to see her wound, but he would have to get over his fears if he was going to help her.

Beast Boy couldn't help but gasp aloud at what he saw.

One of the goblins had clawed Raven back in the clearing. Their horrible little talons had raked across her skin, but instead of a red-brown gash that comes with a bloody wound, the claw marks were pure black. Black and grey veins spider-webbed outward from the wound and further into her face and neck. They pulsed, hot and angry, and Beast Boy could smell the necrotic air between them; a sign that her flesh was dying.

At Beast Boy's gasp, Raven did stir. Her eyes fluttered open gently, and Beast Boy suppressed another cry of despair when he saw that her eyes also had black veins crisscrossing those beautiful, purple irises.

"Raven-!"

"I told you," she hissed, sitting up painfully and pulling the hood back down over her face, "not to look."

"I-I'm sorry but I had to know…"

Raven only nodded. Even her outburst hadn't been full of her usual bite. She looked exhausted, even with a few hours of sleep.

"How bad?"

"What?" he asked.

"How bad is it now?"

Beast Boy swallowed thickly.

"Bad."

Raven nodded a second time.

"That's what I thought."

"Raven, we're going to figure this out. I could fly all the way back there right now and get Cyborg's help-,"

"You'd be leaving me here, you know?"

"I…" he hesitated.

Raven knew he couldn't leave her.

"Fine, then get on my back and we'll gallop all the way back to the T-Car and see if the team is there!"

"It would still take hours," she said, "and I'm not sure I have the strength to stay saddled, Beast Boy…"

"So we give up?"

"No," she said. "But I don't want you…"

"What? You don't want me to get my hopes up?"

Beast Boy put his hands on her shoulders. She was still sitting beneath the pine tree with him, her face turned away and shrouded in purple darkness. He made her turn to look at him.

"I won't sit here and even contemplate you dying as an option, Raven," he said.

Her dark, blackened eyes stared out from beneath the hood. Exhausted or not, something warm flickered in her expression.

"Okay. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said.

Without warning, he pulled her into a hug. Sap gently trickled down over them and into his head but he didn't care.

"You don't have to be sorry for anything," he told her.

Beast Boy was surprised when Raven didn't push him away, but he was disappointed that she didn't try to hug him back. In fact, she was as limp as a doll in his arms.

"Raven?"

He pulled back from the hug and saw that her eyes were closed once more.

"Rae, come' on, don't fall asleep," he whispered, pressing his face against her hair and gently nudging her. It was all he could do as his arms were holding her up in a sitting position.

She didn't move.

"Raven. Come on, _Raven_." Beast Boy never thought his tone could be so serious. "Wake up, right now. Raven, listen to me."

He didn't mean to, but in his panic, he shook her a little. Her head flopped against him, and he could smell the mix of lavender and rotting flesh coming off of her.

" _Raven_ , can you hear me? _Please!_ "

His shout woke her abruptly, her blackened eyes opening, glossy with fever.

"Hm?"

Beast Boy gasped in relief. He pulled her in close again and couldn't help himself when he buried his nose in her neck.

"Don't," he cried, "do that to me again. Stay awake from now on, okay?"

"Okay," she murmured.

He pulled back to give her his most serious, Robin-like expression.

"I need you to truly understand," he told her. "Stay. Awake."

Raven gave him her weakest smile.

"Yes, sir."

Beast Boy had to carry her in the end. He thought he would be able to get her on his back as a horse after all, but that wasn't going to happen in her state.

He was stronger now, but the prospect of bridal-style carrying Raven several hours back east was daunting. How would he be strong enough for the both of them?

Even her powers were weakening. She mumbled something about how "quiet" his emotions were, but he knew that couldn't be the case. Beast Boy was a roller coaster of emotions at the moment, and her lack of feeling or sensing them only meant that she couldn't.

"Raven," he tried to tell her, but she mumbled other nonsense against his chest instead.

He felt himself breathe in and out irregularly as the panic began to set in. He was jogging with her now, kicking himself for letting them stop and sleep last night. If they'd turned around after drinking from the lake at sunset, they would have made it back to their friends by now.

Instead, he'd fallen asleep too, not even keeping lookout or anything!

Robin was going to have his head on a platter.

"Beast Boy?" Raven asked.

"Yeah?" he panted.

"How tall are you now?"

"Feeling awake again, are we?" he asked, laughing. "That's good. Why do you ask?"

"You're tall now," she said simply. "I was hoping to put a number to it."

"How tall are you?"

"I asked you first," she said.

It made Raven happy to see Beast Boy smile. She was in a lot of pain, but this made talking worth it.

"Fair's fair," he told her. "I'm pushing six foot these days. Your question _should_ have been, 'when did I stop getting taller'."

"I suppose you're right."

Beast Boy jogged more confidently then. He was no longer panicking now that she was speaking, and while her flesh still rotted with the smell of decay, he hoped that maybe her healing powers were kicking in finally.

"You know," Raven continued, "back in the T-Car I was thinking how much space you were taking up. Now I know why."

"Ouch," he laughed.

"Compliment," she corrected.

"If you say so."

They carried on like that in considerable silence before Beast Boy had to slow to a walk. His breathing was labored beneath her left ear.

"I should try to walk-,"

"No," he said firmly.

"But we've barely been going for a half-hour and you're already exhausted."

"Not exhausted," he snapped. "Catching my breath."

"Beast Boy…"

He looked down at her again to protest but she had closed her eyes, nuzzling into him. She was going to fall asleep again.

"No," he said, jostling her slightly. "No, no you promised!"

"Right," she murmured, her spider-webbed eyes opening again. "Sorry…"

"I will get you where you need to go," he growled, concerned. "Your only job is to stay awake, Raven. Last time you barely woke up."

She nodded.

"You're right."

Beast Boy grinned at her, his fangs glinting in the sunshine.

"I know I am."

Raven would have rolled her eyes if they didn't feel so hot and irritated.

"Oh, great. Tall and arrogant."

"I'm also in charge now," he said gently.

"We're doomed, then."

Beast Boy laughed and dipped his nose to her hair for the briefest second. He was still grinning when he resumed his jogging pace and they continued on through the forest.

It had been such a small gesture on his part, but Raven was shocked nonetheless. _When had he gotten so affectionate?_

She tried to push the feeling away that seemed to tingle down her spine and into her stomach. It was a warm, fluttering feeling.

Pleasant. Desirable.

No, she was too exhausted for emotions like that - even more-so when they were trying to direct themselves at _Beast Boy._

No, she couldn't deal with that now.

But if it began to seem like she _was_ going to make it out of this damned forest alive… well, then perhaps those feelings could be revisited.

Raven closed her eyes and reflected on that bright idea taking hold in her heart.

 _Perhaps…_ she thought, _if only for a moment._


End file.
